China lottery sales up 8 pct in October

Sales for China’s state lottery system rose 8.3 percent year-on-year in October, to approximately RMB33.83 billion (US$4.89 billion) said the country’s Ministry of Finance.

Welfare lottery ticket sales increased 6.0 percent year-on-year during that month, to nearly RMB17.31 billion. Sports lottery sales grew by 10.9 percent to RMB16.52 billion, the ministry said in a statement, as quoted by Xinhua, an official Chinese news agency.

Judged by province, the greatest growth was in Hunan, where aggregate sales went up by RMB426 million in October. Shandong, Hubei, Shaanxi and Henan provinces also respectively posted large year-on-year increases, the statement said.

In the first ten months of 2016, total lottery sales stood at nearly RMB323.57 billion, a 6.7-percent improvement from a year earlier, said the ministry.

Online sales of mainland China lottery products remain suspended, according to announcements by investors in such business.

In April last year, eight Chinese government agencies confirmed a suspension of what they described as “unauthorised online lottery sales services”.

The move has been described by the mainland authorities as temporary and designed to allow for a revamp of the regulations on such business.

Nasdaq-listed 500.com, an investor in China online lottery business, issued a statement on November 8 referring to the online sales suspension.

It said: “The company notes that while there remains no clear indication as to how long the company’s voluntary temporary suspension of online sports lottery sales services will last, the company has continued to carry on its businesses, including without limitation, developing and improving its product and service offerings, and to work with the China Sports Lottery Administration Center to develop an online lottery sales management system.”

"We are building momentum and continuing to grow our business while at the same time operating more efficiently"Barry CottleChief executive and president of casino equipment maker and lottery services supplier Scientific Games